PACKING OUT

There is also one brief note about jigging bluefin tuna that can increase your catches. We keep a couple of rods with jigs ready to go. When one of our troll lines hook up, we can immediately drop the jigs down and jig while the angler is fighting the troll line fish. This has been a very effective method for getting double and triple hook-ups. We use rigging floss to mark the line on our jig rods every 25 or 50 feet so we can determine the exact depth of our jigs. Although we have seen many bluefin caught on various types of butterfly jigs, we have found traditional hammered diamond jigs in 7- and 10-ounce sizes work the best for us. On a few trips last year, the bluefin bite with fish up to 80 plus pounds was so awesome on jigs that we never went back on the troll. All our jigging reels are spooled with 80-pound spectra and a mono top shot put on custom rods made for jigging.
The following are some tips I believe many anglers can benefit from when targeting the larger 80-pound plus inshore bluefin tuna. Nothing is ever written in stone when it comes to fishing, but this list may be helpful to those who have had trouble catching summer bluefin tuna in our area.
The first is not to troll in the immediate area of the chunk fleet.
The second is put away the artificial lures and spreader bars and go with 100 percent ballyhoo, either naked or with a lure.
The third is slow down your troll as much as you can while still keeping the ballyhoo swimming correctly.
The fourth is to use planers or downriggers to get at least one bait deep.
The fifth is to get at least two baits "way, way back", at least 300 yards or more with an Ilander-ballyhoo combo. I suggest you use blue/white, crystal white and pink Ilanders in your spread.
Another point is to always have a jig ready to drop over when you see tuna on your color machine or after you hook up while trolling as this works extremely well.
You don't need to troll more than 4 or 5 lines. Do your best to avoid the well known popular locations that attract armadas of boats on weekends and holidays. Try to arrive on the tuna grounds as early as possible as bluefin usually bite right at sunrise before the boat traffic arrives.
Finally, I strongly believe running planers, running baits "way, way back" and trolling with natural dead baits greatly increases your chances for catching bluefin over 100 pounds and up to at least 150 pounds. I talked with many boats last year that really struggled mostly because they did not have the correct spread out.